"Lock, Stock and Three Smoking Barrels would be a great film."

To this day, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels remains one of the most iconic British films ever made.

The film quickly gained a reputation as one of the most entertaining and original films of the 90s, and the film’s influence has only widened in the years since.

At the heart of the movie was Nick Moran, who along with the likes of Jason Statham helped the film achieve cult status with a memorable performance as Eddy.

With the film’s twenty-year anniversary looming in 2018, loaded spoke to Moran to discuss its legacy and the potential for a sequel.

Nick Moran

When asked if he believed a sequel would ever get made, he told loaded he could see a follow-up movie working in a similar way to Trainspotting 2.

“I’ve got no idea. I thought Trainspotting 2 was brilliant, actually. It was a film that stood on its own as a feature, because it was a film about being 20-something and feeling indestructible and then being 40-something and realising you’re just a walking bad of missed opportunities [laughs]. But it also reminded everyone how cool that film was, and how film that time was.”

Moranadded: “So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Guy and Matt decide, “let’s have another crack at this.” It was quite funny actually watching all those guys on the Graham Norton Show sat next to each other, and a load of people saying: “That should be you and Statham”. But we’ll see – Lock, Stock and Three Smoking Barrels would be a great film, but it’s all down to Guy, who’s making King Arthur… maybe sometimes these things are best left alone and left to be the priceless gems that have stood the test of time and then some.”

Moran – who is currently starring in British horror movie Don’t Knock Twice – went on to speak about Lock, Stock’s success, saying: “It came out of a very belligerent producer that borrowed a load of money off his mates and his family. That’s why that film was a success; it didn’t have any input from anybody. There was no-one leaning over [Guy Ritchie] or [Matthew Vaughn] ‘s shoulder saying, ‘I think we should have a girl in this’, or ‘there’s too much swearing’ or ‘can you change the ending’.

“It was just something that they came up with, and the fact that they had little or no input from anyone but each other meant that the film was really good [laughs], as opposed to it being some diluted attempt at trying to be cool. You know, trying to be cool is impossible; it’s like having handsome lessons – you can’t do it. It became a cool film because there wasn’t a bunch of people telling you what was cool. There was just a bunch of good film talent and filmmakers making a film.”

Going into depth about the key proponents of the film, Moran said: “It’s a wonderful film that’s just got better with age. They made it for nothing…

“I think one of the reasons that it stands the test of time is that it was pretty much the first film – certainly the first British film that had mobile phones in it. They’re great devices for plots mobile phones. You know, a phone rings and someone does something different. Whereas it used to be, you know, someone would be walking down the street and you’d think ‘how do you get this character to do something else?’, and you’d think ‘well, someone has to step out of the shadows, point a guy at them and tell them to do something’.

“Now, when a phone rings you go, ‘oh right, I got a text’. It was the first time that texts and phones drove the plot along, and you had that brilliant end sequence with the phone ringing… it just made it current, so it was good for the next twenty years. It was a really clever bit of thinking by Guy actually.”

Whether on not it’ll ever happen, loaded certainly hopes we see Moran reuniting with Statham and Ritchie for a sequel in the near future.